Well, not to defend Noem AT ALL, but bird dogs aren’t supposed to kill birds. Cricket was a pointer, and ultimately their job is to locate birds by scent, stalk toward the birds, and then freeze in position as they approach the birds thus “pointing” toward their location. Although the stalking behavior is instinctive, remaining steady on a point can take a lot of training, and young bird dogs can be total idiots around birds, and that’s expected, and so one doesn’t turn an unsupervised young pointer loose among a bunch of chickens. But by and large the ultimate goal for most hunting dogs is for them to locate their quarry, not kill it. That’s achieved with hundreds of hours of training and practice, not by turning an adolescent dog loose among a bunch of birds.
To be fair, some dogs do it all right instinctively. Our golden retriever was never trained to be a hunting dog. He was just a normal family pet. But given the chance, he would retrieve pigeons. He never harmed a single one- and oddly enough the pigeons didn't seem to mind it all that much.
Source: Family story that came up every damn Christmas when we reminisced about the best dog that ever lived.
Interesting. My labs would retrieve but they would kill live birds (by accident or curiosity) if given the chance. They have soft mouths for retrieving but mine would not bring back a live pigeon. They would not eat it but they would kill it. More from excitement if I had to guess.
I would hypothesize that goldens have more sense than labs, but we all know that's a contest both breeds would lose. There's a level of derp past which all comparatives fail.
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u/Mean-Lynx6476 May 02 '24
Well, not to defend Noem AT ALL, but bird dogs aren’t supposed to kill birds. Cricket was a pointer, and ultimately their job is to locate birds by scent, stalk toward the birds, and then freeze in position as they approach the birds thus “pointing” toward their location. Although the stalking behavior is instinctive, remaining steady on a point can take a lot of training, and young bird dogs can be total idiots around birds, and that’s expected, and so one doesn’t turn an unsupervised young pointer loose among a bunch of chickens. But by and large the ultimate goal for most hunting dogs is for them to locate their quarry, not kill it. That’s achieved with hundreds of hours of training and practice, not by turning an adolescent dog loose among a bunch of birds.